Ex: Man I'm having another shiatty migraine attack. We should have sex, it'll make me feel better or something.Me: Ehh well I don't think so, usually sex just makes you feel worse and you can't even finish because of the pain.Ex: Nah, nah! It'll work this time, promise.

Then the rest of the day complaining about how it feels 100 times worse. Farking retarded.

Fabric_Man:The best thing to say is nothing. Just gently usher them into a dark, quiet room with their medicine (if any), and let them ride it out.

This comment is more intelligently-written than that entire article.

Chronic migraines definitely suck, and they're not all genetic. Mine are caused by a non-cancerous lesion in my brain that came from an injury. For the brain surgeons who care, it's in the left frontal lobe in front of and a little above Broca's area.

After a lot of treatment, I'm down to about one migraine a month (a few years ago, it was one a week).

I used to get migraines when I was a kid; First I'd get weird visual effects; blind spots, flashing lights. Then crippling head pain, light hurts, sound hurts, even the pillow hurts. Finally, the puking.

Tiberius Gracchus:"Stop whining; you're not the first person to get a headache, and you won't be the last."

This statement pisses me off the most when someone gives me crap for having a migraine. Lemme take this baseball bat and pound your head with it for the next 6 hours and see if you'll say that again. I'm just glad mine aren't as common as they were a few years ago. I get one a month now compared to the 2-3 a week I used to get, and as long as I don't get the one migraine that sent me to the ER again I can deal with this.

The weirdest migraine I had occurred while I was teaching a writing class. I couldn't see things in the center of my field of vision (previous migraines had affected my peripheral vision). The brain does its best to compensate for things it can't see, but when I needed actual details from the blind spots (like, words on a page), my brain couldn't supply the answers. I called on students to read things off the overhead (since I could no longer read them), then I ended class slightly early. I hadn't experienced a migraine in about 5 years, but fortunately I recognized the bizarre symptoms. I consider myself lucky that migraines don't manifest with pain for me, but they're definitely debilitating.

/Never have met a person who had migraines who also wasn't also a caffeine and/or soda addict.

Caffeine can help sometimes. If I feel like I'm starting to get one, I can sometimes get past it by having something with caffeine.

Unfortunately, there's so many foods that trigger migraines, just figuring out what to eat can be a pain in the ass some times.

Best thing to do for a migraine (short of good drugs) is a dark room, complete quiet, and an icepack behind your neck and/or over your eyes.

Out of curiosity, are there particular foods that commonly cause migranes?

For me, citrus is a big one. I can't eat oranges or drink orange juice at all. Also, some foods that use a lot of seasoning or preservatives (I'm not always sure what in it specifically causes it). For instance, Chicken in a Bicuit crackers almost always give me a migraine the following day. Sucks, cause I love those things.

It's mostly random stuff that I simply learn to avoid after a while. If you get migraines, it's a very good idea to keep track of what foods you eat and when you get migraines (use a diary if necessary). After a few times, it becomes obvious what foods affect you. It can vary wildly from person to person.

WebMD has a good breakdown of common stuff: Link. I almost forgot, some cheeses cause them, too.

Also, it can change over time. When I first started getting migraines in middle/high school, there weren't many foods that caused them, and I didn't get them very frequently. Over the past few years, I've had to pay much more attention to foods I eat as well as my environment.

Forty-Two:I called on students to read things off the overhead (since I could no longer read them), then I ended class slightly early.

Another thing that contributed to this weird experience: I couldn't see students raising their hands. I asked for volunteers to read, and then I couldn't see who was volunteering. Again, the brain compensates; I was "seeing" a bunch of students seated at their desks, but I couldn't see details like raised hands.

The brain is fascinating. Such compensation is clearly key to our species's survival. Yet experiences like that lead to existential, epistomological questions--How much of what I've experienced is just the brain filling in the gaps? Have I had migraines that I haven't noticed just because I wasn't in a situation where I needed much detail?

DRTFA, but is there something in there similar to "Here, you HAVE to try this magic powder/gel/cream I buy from this guy in Timbuktu online! Seriously! I've NEVER BEEN SICK since I started using it! And it only costs $50 a month!"?

Agarista:What about silently handing them a coke and then getting the fark away?

This. My ex got them a couple if times a week to the point where I would put her to bed with a Coke and just STFU for a couple of hours. She described it as having brain freeze for hours. I used to smuggle Imitrex and pherenol (sp?) from Mexico a few times a week by the pound just to keep her from blowing her brains out.

Seriously, there's a trigger point that will help 99% of the time, right in the webbing between the thumb and the index finger. You can almost always find a knot in this, but you actually have to be pretty brutal to get this to work. If you pinch the fark out of this knot, and hold it , you will fell it noticeably reduce in size, and within a few minutes, it will be almost completely gone. Oftentimes, my wife will fell her head throbbing, which is a good sign, it means the blood is flowing freely again. Within half an hour or so, the worst of the migraine is gone.

It's a great solution, but like I said, you have to work that thing hardcore... It doesn't help when my wife has the DEFCON 1 migraines, but it's amazing how well it works. Worst part about migraines is identifying the triggers, they could be absolutely anything, it seems that lack of sleep is a pretty common factor for her. Luckily we haven't had to try an elimination diet, that shiat can take forever, trying to nail downa specific food item that causes them.

I got diagnosed with migraines a couple of years ago when I had a severe headache that didn't go away for FOUR WEEKS. Had the MRI and everything. Caffeine helped a lot, but (contrary to the article), the thing hat helped ME the most was: excersize. Started cycling every day, and now I'm down to one migraine a month or so (usually longer). Dropped 65 pounds, to boot.

Drugs (Maxalt) USED to work, but they don't do much any more. They briefly put me on some antidepressant variant, but I got tired of he side effects and stopped.

Soon, though, you have to take more and more of it to make the pain stop, and then you find yourself needing even more just to feel okay. A bit after that, you can't break even, and the amounts you'll take to try to cope will make your head spin and your stomach ache.

That's when you go off, cold turkey, and suffer four or five days of constant headaches and twelve hours of sleep per night.

I remind myself of this whenever I'm tempted to have something with caffeine in it.

When I was a kid my Grandpa would tell me about having headaches so severe that he would literally bang his head against a wall. I just thought my crazy old war veteran grandpa had lost his mind when he was involved in taking France in WWII. I was wrong. I got my first one at age 22. Yeah, migraines have driven me to actually strike my head against a wall. I'm not really a people person and I pretty much don't like anyone aside from my immediate family, my wife. and a few select close friends. I wouldn't wish that level of pain on anyone, for any reason. It is truly horrific, in ways that you non-sufferers could never imagine.

pute kisses like a man:i don't know anything about medicine, but I wouldn't be surprised to hear that caffeine helps migraine sufferers. it helps absolutely everything else.

/ increases breathing and blood flow. also good for people who are having trouble breathing.

Caffeine does decrease migraine symptoms. That's why so many of us drink coffee. And why "migraine formula" pain relievers tend to have about 200mg caffeine.

A caffeine-withdrawal headache is NOT a migraine. I've never had caffeine withdrawal cause partial blindness, severe dizziness, numb face/limbs, or severe nausea.

Half of the migraines I get never even manifest a headache.

The only one I get on the list is #10, from other people that get them. On that tip. There was a FARKer who told me a year or so ago to try drinking a Red Bull at the onset of symptoms. Well, I'll tell you what: That stuff tastes horrible and is expensive as all get-out ($2.50 for a 7 ounce can???) but It's so worth choking down that vile juice because it works. 10 minutes into a migraine and I had my full range of vision back. Wish I could find that thread so I could sponsor some TF on his/her ass.

/it's all in my head? Of COURSE it's all in my head!! Now, give me back my drill, I need to let the demons out

The first one I had included partial white-out blindness and violent throwing up... I was 15 and home alone all day, thought I was dying. After that they were rare and just extreme headaches that were solved by immediately going to sleep for 6-10 hours no matter what else was going on in my life.

Went 10 years without having one until last year, manifested as tingling and numb extremities, inability to swallow, extreme dizziness, and pronounced feeling that if I didn't think about it, I'd stop breathing. Thought I was having a stroke, and so did the hospital... CT, MRI, and a few shots to the gut of anti-coagulant later (leaves motorcycle crash like bruises), they declared there was nothing wrong with me and threw some sumatriptan at me. Took 10 days before I felt normal again.

Sumatriptan makes me feel like I've been hit by a bus when I take it... sore all over, exhausted... now I just close my eyes to fight the spins and ride out the weird tingly feelings, better than the drugs. Been a few months since I've had another one (there were coming about every month and lasting for 7-10 days). Hoping that it was just a little phase my brain was working out (as the 2nd opinion neurologist thought it might be, though to be fair - he didn't think they were migraines, but he didn't know what it was either and my MRI was better than normal according to the radiologist).

I've heard conflicting evidence on the value of caffeine. During one bout with migraines I stopped ingesting caffeine at all and things got really, really ugly. Caffeine is a vascular dilator, which can help in certain circumstances. However, a substantial change in caffeine intake can in some people (including me, apparently) serve as a trigger, whether the intake level goes up or down. Funny thing is that when I sense a migraine coming on I feel a little funny, and then if I touch my right temple and can feel an enlarged blood vessel I know I'm in for it, the pain train is on it's way. I swear it's a good thing I don't own a hand gun. That pain would have been enough for me to use it...

Kejlina:I used to get migraines when I was a kid; First I'd get weird visual effects; blind spots, flashing lights. Then crippling head pain, light hurts, sound hurts, even the pillow hurts. Finally, the puking.

Ugh. Wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy.

There's sometimes a "churning" sense element involved. My wife suffers from migraine. Most attacks are minor, about 2 times per month. Occasionally she gets a doozy and swears she smells and sometimes hears colors.

Yes, she is also schizophrenic, but her shrink says it is NOT related to the (now controlled w/ Resperidone) schizophrenia.

Seriously, there's a trigger point that will help 99% of the time, right in the webbing between the thumb and the index finger. You can almost always find a knot in this, but you actually have to be pretty brutal to get this to work. If you pinch the fark out of this knot, and hold it , you will fell it noticeably reduce in size, and within a few minutes, it will be almost completely gone. Oftentimes, my wife will fell her head throbbing, which is a good sign, it means the blood is flowing freely again. Within half an hour or so, the worst of the migraine is gone.

It's a great solution, but like I said, you have to work that thing hardcore... It doesn't help when my wife has the DEFCON 1 migraines, but it's amazing how well it works. Worst part about migraines is identifying the triggers, they could be absolutely anything, it seems that lack of sleep is a pretty common factor for her. Luckily we haven't had to try an elimination diet, that shiat can take forever, trying to nail downa specific food item that causes them.

One of the things I hate about my migraines is that I never have any idea how long they're going to last. I'll have one last seemingly forever, then it'll go away really quickly...it weirds my husband out to see me stretched out on the sofa trying not to puke for hours, then watching me get up all of a sudden and demand food.

kth:I"Yours must not be so bad if you're here at work" No, it's not that mine aren't that bad, it is that as an adult I sometimes have to suck it up and do things anyway.

I mainly get the visual type. It seems to me that the stress of trying to see through the blind spots is what causes the headache in the first place.

I've found that I can get a lot of work done with my eyes closed. If I take my glasses off, I can see shapes, but I can't see enough definition that my brain tries to process anything, too. Sometimes I can power through it, sometimes I have to stop working.

But, like you say, there's work that's got to get done. Sometimes you just have to suck it up and deal with it.

No. Just... no. I don't want your sympathy, I don't want farking coddling. Don't ask what you can do for me, if I need something I'll ask. Tend to your own business. Just respect that there are going to be some days where I can't be at full capacity (not zero, I'm still going to try because things aren't going to do themselves), and I don't like it any more than you do.

I had chronic migraines when I was a child. They did the deal where they deprived me of sleep and stuck probes in my head to measure my brain waves and everything. Never did figure out what caused them, and they disappeared eventually. My theory is that my brain was crashing due to how hard I worked it. I was so much smarter than everyone else, and the brain can only function for so long at a high rate. It just took me years to adjust to it. Yeah, adjust to it. Totally didn't lose any brain power over time...